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What will I learn?

Become proficient in Bash, one of the tools of the trade in data science

Learn to download and explore publicly-available datasets

Learn to extract relevant information from data files

Learn to transform and combine data files to answer a question

Example adventures

Using publicly-available datasets and Bash, you will learn to answer questions such as:

Does GDP correlate with life expectancy?

What is the average tip of a NYC cab driver?

How often are flights late to their destination?

Do Chipotle customers prefer chicken or steak burritos?

Why data science?

Increasingly, data science is occupying a greater part of our lives and our work. Whether you are a developer, journalist, biologist, or financial analyst, the ability to analyze data to quickly answer a question is a powerful skill to have, and it’s what this book will help you develop.

Is this book for me?

This book requires no coding experience and is perfect for:

Developers who want to add Bash and other command line tools to their bag of tricks

Students who want to learn Bash and the command line to improve their career prospects

Journalists who want to polish their reporting by analyzing publicly-available datasets

Scientists who want to learn to explore and analyze the data that their lab generates

Which commands do you cover?

Throughout the adventures in this book, you will learn commands such as head, less, grep, cut, sort, uniq, curl, awk, and join. The book also covers concepts such as pipes, for loops, variables, arrays, and command substitution.

Does Bash work on all computers?

Yes! Bash comes preinstalled on Linux and Mac computers. If you use Windows, you can install the program Cygwin to obtain the same command line interface (detailed installation instructions are included in the book).